F 

50a SOME HISTORIC SITES ABOUT GREEN BAY 



BY ARTHUR COURTENAY NEVILLE 

President of Green Bay Historical Society 



IFroni Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 190SJ 



MADISON 
State Historical Society of Wisconsii 

igo6 




Glass. 



O u 



Book (^7/V 6£. 



SOME HISTORIC SITES ABOUT GREEN BAY 



BY ARTHUR COURTENAY NEVILLE 
President of Green Bay Historical Society 



[From Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1905] 



BMADISON 
State Historical Society of Wisconsin 



906 



AY p^i ^'im 
D. Ota 



Historic Sites on Green Bay 



Some Historic Sites About 
Green Bay 



By Arthur Courtenay Neville 

In the short time allotted me tonight it is impossible to men- 
tion even brieflj all of the many interesting historical sites 
about Green Bay and the lower Fox River. I have therefore 
selected only tw^o or three, about which the least has been writ- 
ten and in which I have been most personally interested. 
Ever since I was a boy my favorite summer recreation has 
been cruising about Green Bay in a yacht, or coasting along 
its shores in a small canoe. I was always much interested in 
visiting the places where Indian villages were said to have been 
located, particularly those at Bed Banks and at Point Sable. 
These I explored many times, when there was still much to be 
seen, but without fully understanding or appreciating its 
significance. Being unable tjo read the Jesuit Relations in the 
old French, they were to me a sealed book. Since the publica- 
tion, however, of the edition edited by Dr. Thwaites, with the 
accompanying English translation, my interest has been much 
intensified and I have gone over the familiar ground with a re- 
newed and more intelligent interest. What I give you this 
evening is the result of later investigations, made with the light 
of the wider knowledge obtained by reading the Relations. 

I have been particularly interested in determining where 
Nicolet found the Winnebagos in 1634, and where Father 
Allouez founded the mission of St. Francis Xavier. 
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Nicolet's Landing Place, 1634 

About the earliest authentic record we find of the Green 
BiEiy region is Pere Vimont's brief account of the expedition of 
Jean N^icolet to the Winnebago, probably in 1634, found in 
the Jesuit Relations of 1640/ 

But much earlier information had in a vagiie way reached 
the French at Qitiebec, concerning La Baye, and of a strange 
tribe of Indians living on its shores, a tribe not of Algonquian 
stock, nor speaking any of their languages, but surrounded on all 
sides by Algonquian tribes, and conspicuous because of their 
isolation. They were of the Dakota stock, som.etimes called 
O*uinipigou, and at the time of Nicolet's visit inhabited the 
shores of Green Bay, and later the Fox Eiver valley. 

Vimont says, "they were a sedentary people and very num- 
erous ; some Frenchmen call them Puants, because the Algon- 
quian word Ouinipeg signifies stinking water."" The bay on 
which they dwelt was called the Lake (or Bay) of the Puants. 
It was given tlieir name, probably, instead of that of some of 
the more numerous Algonquian tribes, because of the promin- 
ence given to them on account of their position. Champlain's 
map of 1632 locates the tribe on a lake of the same name, but 
places the lake northwest of Lake Huron. Probably the map 
was based on information obtained from the Indians. It is 
possible, however, that some adventurous Frenchman had pene- 
trated to the Green Bay region even earlier than 1634; al- 
though the first white man to visit the Winnebago, so far as 
recorded, was Jean ISrioolet. Where did Nicolet find these 
people? That they were then living somewhere on the shores 
of Green Bay is clear ; but there is nothing in Vimont's Rela- 
tion, nor in any other early record that I have been able to find, 
giving the slightest clue to their exact position at this time. 
' I think, however, tbat we may locate the tribe — and, ipso 
facto, the place of ISTioolet's visit to them — with a reasonable 



"i^ Jesuit Relations (Thwaites ed.). xxiii, pp. 275-281. 
2William R. Smith, Wisconsin (Madison, 1854), iii, p. 11. 
[144] 




From i)liotngL'ai)h l>y Mrs. Carlton Merrill. V.wi 

Red Banks, east shore of Green Bay, ancient seat of the 
Winnebago 



Historic Sites on Green Bay 

degree of certainty, at tlie Red Banks, on the east shore of 
Green Bay. I reach this conclusion from a study of the tradi- 
tions of the tribe itself, the statements of later explorers, and 
our present knowledge of the ancient Indian village sites along 
the bay shore. 

That the Winnebago occupied the Bed Banks, and had a 
fort there from very early times, is almost a certainty. School- 
craft, in his history of the Indian tribes, published in 1854, 
says: "The traditions of the tribe extend no further back 
than their residence at the Red Banks, some eight or nine gen- 
erations since; and from the fact that the Winnebagos believe 
that their ancestors were created there it is probable that they 
dwelt at that place for a considerable length of time * * * 
that they built a fort., an event which appears to have made a 
general impression in the tribe, and that it was constructed of 
logs or pickets, set in the gTound."^ 

Grignon, in his "Recollections," says: "The OttaAvas used 
to make war on the Winnehagos, who had their village on the 
elevated ground spoken of in O-Kee-Wha's narration as the 
Red Banks, but which has always been known by the French 
as La Cap des Puants."^ It was probably so named, because 
of its occupation by the Puants. The northerly extremity of 
the Red Banks forms a very pronounced and prominent point 
or cape. 

Still further, we have the evidence of Spoon Decorah, an old 
Winnebago chief, in an interview with Dr. Thwaites in 1887, 
in which he says : "It has been told me by my father and my 
uncles that the Winnebago first lived below the Red Banks, 
on the east shore of Green Bay. There was a high bluff there 
which enclosed a little lalce. * * * From there they moved, 
to the Ried Blanks and met at that place the first Frenchman 



1 Henry A. Schoolcraft, History, Condition and Prospects of the In- 
dian Tribes of the United States (Philadelphia, 1851-57, 6th ed.), iii, 
p. 277; iv, 227, 228, 231. 

2 Wis. Hist. Colls., iii, p. 204. 

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Historic Sites on Green Bay 

they ever saw."^ This "first Frenchman," it would seem, was 
undoubtedly Jean J^icolet. I am aware that Mr. P. V. Law- 
son says that "we know the Winnebago Indians had their vil- 
lage there [Doty's Island] when Nicolet came in 1634;"^ but 
I can find neither reason nor authority for the statement. 

This conclusion is further corroborated by Father Allouez.^ 
Assuming that Allouez first landed upon December 2, 1669, at 
the Indian village on Oconto River, and there spent the winter 
of 1669-70, as will appear hereafter, his statements as to the 
location of, and distances to, the several Indian villages men- 
tioned by him indicate pretty clearly that the Winnebago were 
at or near the Eed Banks. He says that "eight leagues from 
our cabin on the other side of the bay was a village of about 
three hundred souls." E'ow the Red Banks is almost exactly 
eight French leagues from Oconto, measured in a direct line, 
and is about the only place on the east shore where an Indian 
villag^e is known to have existed that comes so near that dis- 
tance. Allouez further declares that on the 17th of February, 
1670, "I repaired to the village of the Pottawiatomiee, which 
is on the other shore of the lake, eight leagues from this place" 
(meaning by this place his cabin on the Oconto) ;* and on the 
thirteenth of May following he again crossed the bay "to go to 
find the Winnebago in their clearings where they were assem- 
bling." At the same time he visited the Potawatomi, "who lived 
near them." There must, then, have been two villages "on the 
other side of the lake," a village of Winnebago, as well as a 
village of Pbtawatonui ; and existing remains clearly indicate 
such to have been the case. 

Col. Samuel Stambaugh, in his "Report on tlie Quality and 
Condition of Wisconsin Territory, 1831," says: "About twelve 
miles below the fort [Fort Howard] there is a very conspicu- 



^In Id., xiii, p. 457. 

2 Wis. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, 1899, p. 206. 

3 Jesuit Relations, liv, p. 211. 

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Wisconsin Historical Society 

ous promontor)' called the Red Banks. Thej are at the high- 
est point about one hundred feet above the level of the bay; 
the ground on these banks presents the appetarance of having 
once been under cultivation ; and on one place evidently bears, 
vestiges of fortifications of some kind."^ 

Charles D. Eobinson, describing the fortifications at the Red 
Banks in 1856, says: "Upon a high bank on the eastern shore 
of Green Biay, about twelve miles north of the town, is an in- 
teresting earth work. * * * Its walls, at one time, must 
have been some seven feet in height, or thereabouts, having a 
ditch or moat on the outside, and provided, on its three ex- 
posed sides, with regular bastious. Its fourth side fronts on 
a precipice of perhaps one hundred feet in height, whose base 
is wiashed by the waters of Green Bay; and leading down this 
steep bank, impassable at any other immediate point, is seen 
what seems to have been oncQ a protected passage of steps cut 
into the clay. * * * In or near the center are two parallel 
walls united at the ends, as there is some appearance of it now. 
A few rods to tlie north, outside the walls and on the very' 
brink of the precipice, is what was once apparently a lookout, 
a high mound of earth — ^now half carried away by the wear^ 
ing away of the cliff. To the southward and eastward of the 
fort, occupying some hundreds of acres, were the planting 
grounds of the people who occupied the place. Large trees 
now overgi-ow the ground, yet the furrows are as distinctly 
marked as if made but last year and are surprisingly regu- 
lar."=^ 

I have quoted Mr. Robinson at length, because his descrip- 
tion corresponds almost exactly with my own recollection of 
the ground, when visited by me a few years later. The earthen 
breastworks were, however, most probably surmounted by 
wooden palisades, according to the prevailing Indian cusitom.. 
In the fifty years since Mr. Robinson wrote, the erosion of the 



^Wis. Hist. Colls., XV, p. 399. 
2ld., li, p. 491. 



[148] 



Historic Sites on Green Bay 

face of the cliff lias been so gi-eat tliat all traces of these 
ancient works have disappeared. Fro'ni the foregoing there 
would seem to be little doubt that the village and fort of the 
Winnebago was, when visited bj I^icolet, at the Red Banks, 
and that Allouez after^vard found tliean there. 

Eixtending southward for about two miles to the low, marshy 
land near Point Sable, were, at intervals, other clearings and 
planting jfields. The ground along the shore west of the lime- 
stone ridge, from the Red Banks to Point Sable, still bears 
unmistakable evidences of long-continued and very extensive 
Indian occupation. Several interesting mounds are still in ex- 
istence; many others have been robbeci and destroyed; great 
numibers of implements of flint and copper — ^ arrow points, 
spear heads, knives, axes, etc. — have been found here; and in 
many places, more especially near Point Sable^ the ground is 
literally strewn with, flint chips, blocks of flint, and fragments 
of pottery. It was just north of Point Sable, upon the site of 
the village of tlie Potawatomi, that the bronze compass and 
sun dial was found in 1902, by Holmes and Duchateau, a very- 
fine illustration of which appears in the Wisconsin Historical 
Collections.^ 

After the mission of St. Francis Xavier had been finally es- 
tablished at De Pere, Father Allouez, on his return from a 
visit to the Outagami, says that on September 17, 1672, "I 
went to the fort of the Pottawatamie to procure a supply of 
corn."" On the twenty-seventh "I planted a great cross on a 
plateau, on the shore of the laTce between the village of the 
Pauteouatami and that of the Puants." It will be remembered 
here that Allouez mentions visiting the Winnebago two years 
before, in their clearing, also the Potawatomi who lived with or 
near them. 

Some time afterward he went again to these villages, to 
visit a man who was dangerously ill. "The wind prevented us 



1 Vol. xvi, p. 65. 

^Jesuit Relations, Iviii, p. 37. 



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Wisconsin Historical Society 

from crossing tlie bay," he says, "so I left my boatmen at the 
mouth of the river to watch the canoe. * * * I -^^as 
obliged to go by land, one-half the journey being through a 
difficult country."^ To one familiar with the locality, this is 
quite plain. It is some six miles from the mouth of the river 
to Point Sable, across what is usually known as the inner bay, 
which latter is formed by Point Sable projecting from the east 
shore for about two miles, and by Long Tail Point, almost di- 
rectly opposite, extending into the bay from the west shore for 
about three miles. A strong wind from any direction makes 
it extremely dangerous to make this traverse in a canoe. To 
reach Point Sable hj land from the mouth of Fox River, th© 
first four miles of the journey would be ''through most diffi- 
cult countr}^," consisting successively of marsh, sandy beach, 
bog, muddy bottomed creeks and tangled cedar swamps. 
Emerging from this, the missionary could see "from afar" the 
great cross wdiich he had planted; and there would remain 
about four miles of most "delightful country," to be traversed 
before reaching the village of the Potawatomi. 

If I have argued correctly from my premises, can there be 
any doubt that jS^icolet found the Winnebago at the Eed Banks ? 

Mission of St. Francis Xavier 

It must be understood that the mission of St. Francis Xavier 
was successively located at three distinct places. 

The first location was on Oconto Eiver, at the place where Al- 
louez landed on December 2, 1669, "the eve of the day of St. 
Francis Xavier." This was, he wrote, "the place where the 
Frenchmen were," who "aided us to celebrate the festival with 
all the solemnity that Avas possible * * * and praying 
him to be the patron of this missiooi that we were about to 
commence under his protection." Here the missionary built 
his cabin and had his headquarters during the winter of 1669- 
70 ; and at this time and place, wherever it might have been, 
was founded the mission of St. Francis Xavier. 



Ibid., p. 39. 

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Historic Sites on Green Bay 

I have assumed that x^llouez and his party ended their haz- 
ardous voyage on the Oconto. My reasons for so doing appear 
to me conclusive, although other writers have likewise assumed 
the contrary, notahly the authors of Historic Green Bay} 

It seems certain that Allouez's first landing was on the west 
shore of Green Bay. On his w^ay up the bay, he mentions 
passing the Menominee, who forced him to land.^ Afterwards 
he visite;d them on their river, eight leagues from his cabin, 
while he also mentions another village on the "other side of 
the bay."^ His statements, also, of the location of surrounding 
Indian villages and the distances to them, together with our 
present knowledge of the topography of the country, and the 
location of ancient Indian village sites, lead almost inevitably 
to the conclusion tliat it was on the Oconto Kiver, some consid- 
erable distance above its mouth. Probably it was at the rapids 
about two miles above where tlie city of OcontO' now stands, a 
well known Indian village site, where the ground still bears 
ample evidence of aboriginal occupation. 

Assuming, further, that Allouez pursued the shortest, and 
what came in later t^imes to be the usual, route to reach his 
destination, he w^ould have crossed the entrance tO' Green Bay 
from island to island, called aftenvards "the grand traverse,"' 
unto Death's Door Bluff. Thus would he avoid either the long 
detour up and around the shore of Big Bay de Noquet, or the 
dangerous passage of sixteen miles across its mouth. He 
would then coast along the east shore of Green Bay, from 
Death's Door Bluff to another high and rocky point, now called 
Eagle Bluff, just north of Fish Creek ; thenxje, making another 
traverse across the bay, he would go first to the Strawberry 
Islands, three miles, thence to Chambers Island, about five 
miles, and thence to the west shore, about seven miles. The 
government chart of Green Blay will show at a glance the disr 



1 Neville and Martin, Historic Green Bay (Green Bay, 1894). 
^Jesuit Relations, liv, p. 205. 
37&rd., p. 235. 

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Wisconsin Historical Society 

tance saved, and the advantages and safety of tliis route. I 
have sailed over it many times, and can speak from personal 
experience. The low saiidy west shore once reached, the shal- 
low water and frequent harbors made canoe navigation easy 
and safe. 

Continuing his narrative, Father Allouez says: "On the 
twenty-seventh, while we were tr)'ing to paddle with utmost 
vigor, we were peroieved by four cabins of savages, named 
Oumalouminek, who forced us to land."' This band of Me- 
nominee were probably the same referred to by Allouez after- 
wards, when he says "On the 6th [of May] I paid a visit to 
the Oumalouminek, eight leagTies fromi our cabin, and found 
them on their river in small numbers." 

On the twenty-ninth they arrived near the river mouth which 
they were to enter, and found it closed with ice. They thought 
of making the rest of their journey to the rendezvous by land ; 
""but a furious wind having arisen during the night, we found 
ourselves enabled, owing to the breaking up of the ice, to con- 
tinue our voyage." They arrived at their destination Decem- 
ber 2. 

Following the shore, it is about thirty miles by water from 
Menominee to Oc:onto, or one day's canoe journey. Allouez 
and his party must have left Menominee in the morning and 
arrived near the mouth of the Oconto River towards evening 
of the t^^^enty-nintll. That night, the ice broke up, and it is 
to be presmned that they resumed their voyage on the thirtieth. 
They were then nearly three days in ascending the river. I 
cannot explain this otherwise, than that navigation in a bark 
oanoe must have been extremely slow and difficult owing to the 
floating ice and danger of pimcturing the canoe. 

Arriving "at the place where the French were," the stalwart 
old father says: "I found here only one village, of different 
nations, about six hundred souls. A league and a half away 
was another, of a hundred and fifty souls." Probably this was 
on the Pensaukee, which is four miles, or about one and a half 
French leagues, from Ofconto. 

[152] 



Historic Sites on Green Bay 

'Tour leagues distant one of a hundred souls." Pe&htigo 
is just about four leagues from Oconto, and in later times an 
Indian village was known to be located where the city of Pesh- 
tigo now stands. 

To quote furtlier, ''eight leagues from here, on the other side 
of the bay, one of about three hundred souls." As I have said 
before, the Red Banks are twenty-one miles, or about eight 
French leagues, from Oconto. 

Eeferring now to the Jesuit map of 1670-71,^ it will be no- 
ticed that the Menominee River is distinctly marked and desig- 
nated. One other river only is sho^vn — about midway between 
the Menominee and the head of Green Bay, on the west side. 
The Otonto Raver is just about half way between the Menom- 
inee and Fox rivers. The Oconto, as it appears on the Jesuit 
map, has its source in a small lake, veiy near another small 
lake, the source apparently of still another river, flowing al- 
most due south — the latter evidently intended to represent 
Lake Shawano and Wolf River. 

Consulting a modem map, it will be seen at once how closely 
the conditions showTi on the Jesuit map tally with the situation 
as it actually exists. Ascending the Oteonto River the course is 
almost due west until within four or five miles of Lake Shaw- 
ano. Here the river turns abruptly and sharj^ly to the nortli, 
and near this bend is a small lake, having its outlet to the 
Oconto. It is an easy and comparatively short portage from 
this bend in the Oconto to Lake Shawano, and probably it was 
well-known and frequently used by the Indians in that time of 
the French regime. 

There is no other river on the west shore of Green Bay that 
will in any wise answer the requirements of this map of the 
Jesuits, save the Oconto; and it is no more than reasonable to 
suppose that the Oconto was shown on tlic map because it had 
beien explored and was well known to the French, whereas the 



1 Jesuit Relations, Iv, p. 94; Wis. Hist. Colls., xvi, p. 80; Historic 
Green Bay, p. 46. 

11 [ 153 ] 



Wisconsin Historical Society 

other rivers entering Green Bay from tlie west — ^the Peshtigo, 
Pensaukee, and the two Suamicos — were unknown to and un- 
explored by tliem. 

The Jesuit map shows the location of the mission of St. 
Michael to be on Menominee Elver, and does not show any mis- 
sion of St. Francis on the Oconto; on the contrary, it is placed 
on the east side of the bay. This was because the mission of 
St. Francis Xavier had been reanoved from the Odonto to the 
east side of the bay, near to Point Sable, in the fall of 1670, 
before the map was made. Again, Father Allouez says,^ in 
speaking of his first voyage up Fox River in the spring of 
1670: "On the 16th of April I embarked to go and begin the 
mission to the Outagami, a people of considerable note in these 
regions. We slept that night at the head of the bay, at the 
mouth of the River des Puans, which we have named St. 
Francis. * * * On the 17th we ascended the river." Thus 
he clearly indicates that their location during the winter of 
1669-70 was one day's journey from the mouth of Fox River, 
the actual distance by water being between thirty and thirty- 
five miles. 

Secondly, upon the Jesuit map above referred to, the mission 
of St. Francis Xavier is located, very clearly and unmistak- 
ably, on tlie east shore of Green Bay, betv^^en Point Sable and 
the Red Banks. Further, Father D'ablon, describing the loca- 
tion of the three Western missions," says: "The third beai-s 
the name of St. Francis Xavier, at the far end of tlie bay 
called des Puans, which is separated only by a tongue of land 
from Lake Superior." 

Father Allouez left Green Bay and descended to Quebec in 
the spring of 1670. He returned to the bay September 6, 
1670, accompanied by Father Dablon. "They found serious 
trouble in the village at tlie head of the hay."^ The location 



''^ Jesuit Relations, liv, p. 215. 

^Ibid., p. 128. 

3 Id., Iv, pp. 185, 186. 



[154 3 



Historic Sites on Green Bay 

of 1669 was not at the head of the bay. It was, as shown 
above, one day's joumev from tlie mouth of the Fox River. 

Thirdly, in 1671-72 the mission of St Francis Xavier was 
Again removed, this time to its last and final location, at the 
Rapides des Peres. After Father Allouez had become more 
familiar with the Green Bay region, and after his experiences 
at O'oonto and the Red Banks for the past t^vo years, he, with 
concurrence of his superior. Father Dablon, finally decided 
that the De Pere (des Peres) rapids afforded greater advant- 
ages for the location of the mission than any other yet tried. 
The mission founded two years before at Oconto (1669-70), 
and removed to Point Sable in 1670-71, wa& now placed "al- 
together newly" at De Pere. Referring to "the place chosen 
to build the chapel," Father Dablon says:^ "The past year 
[1670-71] the map of the lakes and the countries in which 
missions are situate has been given to tJie public: we have 
judged it proper to give it again this year [1671-72], to sat- 
isfy the curiosity of those who have not seen it and to mark 
down some new missions which have been established lately 
in that country: among otters that of St. Francis Xavier, 
placed altogether newly^, on the river which discharges itself 
into the bay of the Puants two leagues from its mouth." 

J^ow the Jesuit map published in tlie Relations, it will be 
observed, is the map given to the public "tiie past year" (1670- 
71),^ and not the corrected map of 1671-72 above referred to. 
The first map, the only one published, unmistakably places the 
mission of St. Francis Xavier at Point Sable. It must also be 
remembei'ed that Fatlier Allouez had founded this mission two 
years before Dablon wrote the above, and he had written a d^ 



II use Woodman's translation in "W. R. Smith, Wisconsin (Madison, 
1854), iii, pp. 99, 102, because it more nearly expresses the idea I wish 
to convey than that in the Thwaites edition of the Relations (vol. Ivi, 
p. 91); and because it expresses, as it seems to me, more accurately 
the meaning intended to be conveyed by the Father. I quote Dablon's 
language, as given by Woodman; but the italics are mine. 

^Jesuit Relations, iv, p. 94. 

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Wisconsin Historical Society 

tailed account of its establishment, which had already been 
published. Dablon, therefore, while he speaks of republish- 
ing the map, "to mark down some new missions which have 
been established lately," does not mean to say that the mission 
of St Francis Xavier was just then founded, but rather that 
it had been "newly placed." He then goes on to explain or 
enlarge upon the advantages of the place Jinally chosen to build 
the church. The structure was built, and the mission remained 
at De Pere until 1687. In that year the new church, mission 
house, and all the buildings of the establishment were burned 
and everything valuable either carried off or destroyed. There 
is no record of the church having been rebuilt^ and the mission 
of St Francis Xavier from that time until its final abandon- 
ment was a roving one.^ 



^ Historic Green Bay, pp. 75, 76. 



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